Other Views: Changes to Primary Are Victories for Voters

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With at least 18 Democrats in the race (it’s difficult to keep track) and 570 days remaining before the 2020 presidential election, Washington voters might want to start paying attention.

We know, we know, that sounds daunting. Deciphering between the likes of John Delaney and Marianne Williamson might require a bit of research. But the good news is that — for a change — votes in Washington’s presidential primary will be meaningful.

The first step toward achieving such significance came last month, when Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill moving the state’s primary from May to the second Tuesday in March. The May primary too often left Washington voters out of the loop, typically arriving after the nominations for the major parties had essentially been decided.

In 2004 and 2012, the Legislature canceled the state’s presidential primary rather than spend money on a meaningless vote. Moving the vote to March will give Washington — the nation’s 13th most populous state — a role in choosing the nominees and should draw attention from the candidates during campaign season.

But that was only half the battle in giving our state a voice. The crescendo occurred last week when the state Democratic Party announced plans to incorporate the primary vote in apportioning delegates to the national convention.

In 2016, Democrats used only party caucuses to decide which candidates would receive support from the state’s delegates. In March of that year, about 230,000 Democrats attended caucuses that decided Bernie Sanders would receive a majority of the state’s votes at the national convention; in the May primary, more than 800,000 ballots were cast for Democrats, with 53 percent of them going to Hillary Clinton. The primary votes counted for naught.



Republicans, meanwhile, used only the primary to apportion delegates to their convention. But by the time that vote came around, Donald Trump was the only candidate still in the race.

For 2020, Democrats are planning to use a hybrid of results from the party caucus and the primary to determine who will receive support from the state’s delegates. True democracy would dictate that the primary — which includes more voters — is the sole determinant. But the new system is an improvement.

That being said, shortcomings remain in Washington’s primary system. Since 2008, the state has not registered voters by party preference, which becomes problematic for the presidential primary. Voters will be required to mark a party preference to participate in the primary, and that preference provides the parties with a ready-made list of voters. Residents’ party preferences are public record; even though their votes remain secret, many potential voters prefer to remain on the sideline during the primary rather than declare a preference for one party or the other.

But the most important aspect is that Washington’s presidential primary in March will be meaningful. Candidates will be lured to the state to address concerns of local interest such trade policy, immigration, the environment and the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. And voters will have a battalion of candidates from which to choose — at least on the Democratic side of the ballot.

Changes to the primary date and the use of that primary in choosing the nominees represent victories for Washington voters. And that might have us doing some research into, say, Andrew Yang and Tim Ryan.